Marital interactions and experiences of women living in polygamy: An exploratory study

The study examines interactions and experiences of Bedouin women living in polygamous households in Israel. A mixed-method approach was applied in a two-part study. The quantitative part examined differences in differentiation of self and marital satisfaction between 50 Bedouin women in polygamous marriages and 50 in monogamous marriages. It found that, in polygamous families, women's levels of marital satisfaction were positively related to their I-position and fusion with others and negatively related to emotional cutoff and number of children at home, whereas among monogamous counterparts, marital satisfaction was only negatively associated with emotional cutoff. Surprisingly, fused relationships with the family of origin predicted higher satisfaction only in women in polygamous marriages. The qualitative part, which yielded deeper understanding of the authentic voices and experiences of 18 senior wives, revealed that they had severe emotional and physiological responses to their husbands' marriage to another woman. For most, particularly those who married young, living in a polygamous family adversely affected their marital satisfaction. Interactions ranged from violent relationships, accompanied by jealousy and anger, to respectful and harmonious relations. Along with the challenges, some women, especially the educated, chose proactive ways of coping. Educated women also preferred cohabitation with the other wife.     

Success and failure among polygamous families: the experience of wives, husbands, and children

In this study, we interviewed 10 polygamous families, all residing in a Bedouin Arab town in the south of Israel and consisting of 1 husband, 2 wives, and children. Five members were interviewed in each family: first wife, second wife, the oldest child of the first wife, the oldest child of the second wife, and the husband. Five families were considered well-functioning families and five as poorly functioning. Findings suggest that polygamy in both well-functioning and poorly functioning families is painful, particularly for wives. Yet, there are many ways and techniques that enable members of the family to function well. Among them are acceptance of polygamy as God's wish or destiny, equal allocation of resources among both families by the husband, separation between the two households, avoidance of "minor" conflicts and disagreements, maintaining an attitude of respect toward the other wife, and allowing open communication among all siblings, and among children and the other mother. We discuss the need to develop, implement, and evaluate family intervention programs for polygamous families among different communities in the world.     

Does a Woman’s Marital Surname Choice Influence Perceptions of Her Husband? An Analysis Focusing on Gender-Typed Traits and Relationship Power Dynamics

Within Western cultures, most women in heterosexual relationships adopt their husbands’ surnames after marriage. In attempting to explain the enduring nature of this practice, researchers have noted that women tend to encounter stereotypes when they break with tradition by retaining their own surnames after marriage. A complementary possibility is that stereotypes are also directed toward men whose wives violate the surname tradition. The current research provides initial insight into this possibility through three studies that were conducted in the United States and United Kingdom with undergraduate and community samples (total N = 355; 254 women and 101 men). Study 1 revealed that participants predominantly referenced expressive traits when describing a man whose wife retained her surname. Study 2 built on these findings with an experimental design. Relative to a man whose wife adhered to the surname tradition, a man whose wife retained her surname was rated as less instrumental, more expressive, and as holding less power in the relationship. In Study 3, participants high in hostile sexism were particularly likely to rate a man as lower in power when his wife retained her surname. Collectively, findings provide insight into attitudes that may help to explain the longevity of the marital surname tradition. Findings also join with prior research in revealing links between commonplace marriage traditions and gendered power dynamics.     

Risky sexual behavior among married alcoholic men.

The current study explored whether the wives of men entering alcoholism treatment are at risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) exposure as a result of their husbands' sexual risk behaviors. The extramarital relationships of married alcoholic men entering outpatient treatment (n = 125) were compared with those of a demographically matched community sample of nonalcoholic married men (n = 125). The proportion of alcoholic men who reported 1 or more extramarital affairs in the previous year (14%) was significantly higher than that of the community sample (4%). Additionally, only 2 alcoholic husbands and 1 nonalcoholic husband reported that his wife was aware of the extramarital relationship. For both groups, none of the men who engaged in extramarital relationships reported consistent use of condoms when having sexual intercourse with their wives or with their extramarital partners. These results suggest that wives of alcoholic men are unknowingly placed at risk for indirect exposure to STIs as a result of their husbands' sexual risk behaviors. Thus, infidelity in treatment-seeking alcohol-abusing men represents a significant public health issue.     

Parental pressure, self-esteem and adolescent reported deviance: bending the twig too far

Questionnaire responses from upper-status junior and senior high school students show the importance of perceived parental pressure in understanding adolescent self-esteem and deviant behavior. Adolescents who feel unduly pressured to achieve and succeed in school also are likely to have low self-esteem, to report deviant activity, and to feel they are incapable of reaching the goals set for them by their families.     

Self-esteem as a predictor of attitudes toward wife abuse among Muslim women and men in Canada

This study was designed (a) to assess attitudes toward wife abuse in a sample of Muslim women and men in Canada and (b) to assess whether those attitudes were influenced by self-esteem. Results suggested that, as in general North American samples, the Muslim women and men did not differ from each other on levels of self-esteem. Also consistent with general North American samples, the Muslim women's and men's attitudes toward wife abuse were related to their self-esteem, with higher self-esteem scores predicting stronger attitudes against wife abuse, independent of gender. However, the results also revealed that the Muslim men had significantly more lenient attitudes toward wife abuse compared with the Muslim women and with North American norms.     

Self-Esteem as a Predictor of Attitudes Toward Wife Abuse Among Muslim Women and Men in Canada

Abstract

This study was designed (a) to assess attitudes toward wife abuse in a sample of Muslim women and men in Canada and (b) to assess whether those attitudes were influenced by self-esteem. Results suggested that, as in general North American samples, the Muslim women and men did not differ from each other on levels of self-esteem. Also consistent with general North American samples, the Muslim women's and men's attitudes toward wife abuse were related to their self-esteem, with higher self-esteem scores predicting stronger attitudes against wife abuse, independent of gender. However, the results also revealed that the Muslim men had significantly more lenient attitudes toward wife abuse compared with the Muslim women and with North American norms.     

How do constraints on leaving a marriage affect behavior within the marriage?

Like relationship satisfaction, constraints on leaving a relationship have been described as a component of global commitment. But do constraints increase or decrease efforts to maintain the relationship? To address this question, the authors of the current article describe 3 independent studies of spouses and married couples. Across all studies, wives who perceived more constraints on leaving the marriage exhibited lower levels of negative behavior only when their husbands were relatively unconstrained. In Study 3, this association was especially pronounced among less satisfied wives. In Study 2, spouses' perceived constraint also interacted to predict husbands' behavior, but in the opposite direction: Husbands who perceived more constraints behaved less negatively when their wives were similarly constrained but more negatively when their wives were less constrained. These results highlight differences in behavior between couples who persist in marriage because they desire to and those who endure because they have to, raising questions about measures of global commitment that obscure these distinctions. They also highlight the need for a dyadic perspective on the forces that keep relationships together.     

Clergy wives of the new generation

This article describes the changes that are occurring in the lives of wives of ministers, the difficulties and satisfactions they are experiencing, the issues they are confronting. It presents the thesis that the crucial change in the past 15 years for wives of ministers is that they no longer derive their primary identity from being ministers' wives, and therefore they are less involved in their husbands' ministries and more focused on their own issues and careers.Dr. Niswander is a pastoral counselor and senior staff member of the Pastoral Psychotherapy Institute, 1580 N. Northwest Highway, Park Ridge, Illinois 60068. She has been the wife of a United Methodist minister for 27 years and was recently ordained by that denomination as an elder herself. She has led retreats, workshops and study groups for wives of ministers as well as counseling them professionally.     

Behavioral problems and scholastic adjustment among Bedouin-Arab children from polygamous and monogamous marital family structures: some developmental considerations

Families in the Bedouin-Arab community in Israel are characterized by monogamous and polygamous marriages. Such diversity in family structure occurs in other parts of the world, yet scant empirical evidence exists to refute or to support the claim that polygamous family structure can be a risk factor for children's school maladjustment and negative developmental outcomes. The purpose of the current study was to test this claim. Participants were 255 3rd-grade children from the Negev Bedouin community in Israel. One hundred fifty-three children came from monogamous families that were characterized by 1 wife (i.e., 1-wife families), and 102 children came from polygamous families consisting of 2 wives (i.e., 2-wife families). Teachers completed the Teacher's Report Form of the Child Behavior Checklist (T. M. Achenback, 1991b). A series of logistic regression analyses, after adjusting for maternal education level, revealed that 2-wife children tended to have higher levels of externalizing problems in general and higher levels of attention problems in particular than did their 1-wife counterparts. Also, 2-wife children had higher rates of school absenteeism and lower levels of overall academic achievement than did 1-wife children. Implications for the Bedouin society are discussed.     

The division of labor in close relationships: An asymmetrical conflict issue

This research addresses couples’reports of their (hypothetical) attempts to maintain or change a gendered division of labor through conflict interactions. Two experiments in which spouses responded to scenarios showed that spouses reported more conflict over the division of housework than conflict over paid work and child care, and that wives more often than husbands desired a change in their spouses’contribution. Spouses reported more wife‐demand/husband‐withdraw than husband‐demand/wife‐withdraw interaction during hypothetical conflict over the division of labor, but only when the wife desired a change in her spouse's contribution. Together, the data imply that wife‐demand/husband‐withdraw interaction is a likely response to the asymmetrically structured conflict situation in which the wife is discontent with her husband's contribution to housework, while her husband wants to maintain the status quo. We further showed that defenders of the status quo were more likely expected to reach their goal than complainants. In the role of complainant, wives were more likely expected to reach their goal than were their husbands, but only when the conflict issue concerned their own gender stereotypical domain (i.e., family work).     

For better or worse? Self-esteem and the contingencies of acceptance in marriage

A longitudinal daily diary study examined the origins and consequences of perceiving a partner's acceptance and love as contingent on professional success. Both members of 154 couples completed a diary for 21 days. Multilevel analyses revealed that low self-esteem men and women felt more accepted and loved by their partner on days when their professional lives were marked by success, and low self-esteem women felt less accepted and loved on days when their professional lives were marked by failure. No such spillover effects between people's professional and relationship lives emerged for people high in chronic selfesteem. A 1-year longitudinal follow-up revealed that people who initially felt less accepted across days reported decreased satisfaction. Men also became especially distressed when their wives felt less accepted initially and (incorrectly) perceived their husbands' regard as contingent.     

Marital Maladjustment and the Crime of Murder Among Pakistani Female Criminals

This study explores marital maladjustment as concomittantly related to female crimes such as murder and running away from home. Seventy female convicts were interviewed in depth on variables indicating marital maladjustment. The variables were: Sharp disparity between the ages of husbands and wives, early marriage, husband's other wife, exchange marriage, forced marriage, problems with in-laws, husband's extra-marital relations and severe conflicts with husbands. The findings indicate that marital maladjustment is an important factor behind criminal acts commited by women in Pakistan. The two most frequent of these are murder and running away from home. Results have been discussed in terms of the peculiar cultural conditions existing in Pakistan. The implications of social reform are suggested and the need for adopting a helpful attitude towards women before and after their criminal acts is stressed.     

Learning achievement, social adjustment, and family conflict among Bedouin-Arab children from polygamous and monogamous families

A sample of 146 Bedouin-Arab pupils from polygamous and monogamous families participated in this study, which was conducted in a Bedouin-Arab village in the Negev, Israel. The authors compared learning achievement, social adjustment, and family conflict. Data revealed differences between the two groups: The children from monogamous families had higher levels of learning achievement than did the children from polygamous families; in addition, those from monogamous families adjusted to the school framework better than did those from polygamous families. The mean conflict rating of children from polygamous families was higher than that of their counterparts from monogamous families. The father's level of education tended to be inversely correlated with family size in terms of both number of children and number of wives.     

中学生自恋的年龄特征及其与社会适应的关系:自尊的中介作用

对459名初一到高二学生施测自恋、自尊以及社会适应问卷,以探讨中学生自恋的年龄特征及其与社会适应的关系。结果表明:(1)中学生的自恋不存在性别差异,但是年级差异显著,初三学生的自恋水平要显著低于高一学生。由于年级差异的效应值很小(G²=0.025),要谨慎分析该年级差异。(2)自恋与中学生自我报告的社会适应良好呈显著正相关。(3)自尊在自恋与社会适应的关系间起到了中介作用。     

PERCEIVED FREQUENCY OF ROLE CONFLICT AND RELATIONSHIP QUALITY FOR CAREGIVING DAUGHTERS

A role-conflict approach was employed to explore the impact of perceived frequency of conflict between caregiving and other obligations on the quality of relationships between daughters and their care-receiving mothers. Frequency of conflict between caregiving and responsibilities as a wife, mother, and paid and unpaid worker was assessed. Daughters reported relatively infrequent conflict between caregiving and other obligations. A multiple regression analysis revealed that daughters who reported frequent conflict between their obligations as caregivers and their obligations as wives had poorer relationships with their mothers. The findings emphasize the importance of a supportive spouse for married caregivers.     

Marital intimacy,family support,and secondary traumatization: A study of wives of veterans with combat stress reaction

Abstract

The main aim of the study was to assess the role of family variables in the process of secondary traumatization among wives of post-traumatic veterans. We compared a sample of 49 wives of Israeli veterans with combat stress reaction (CSR) from the 1982 Lebanon War with a sample of 31 wives of Israeli veterans who fought in the war without developing CSR. We assessed their psychological reactions to the war, their health status six years later, and their reported levels of marital intimacy and family support after the war. When compared with controls, wives of veterans with CSR reported more negative emotions and lower perceived intimacy after the war, and greater severity of psychiatric and somatic symptoms six years later. Results also indicate that the greater the perceived marital intimacy, the less the negative emotions wives of veterans with CSR felt after the war and the better their health status six years later. In addition, wives of veterans with CSR who reported having received more support from their families after the war reported more anxiety and hostility than wives who received less support. The roles of marital intimacy and family support in the process of secondary traumatization were discussed.     

What lies beneath: Parenting style and implicit self-esteem

The current studies extend previous research on self-esteem by examining one of the likely origins of implicit self-esteem. Three studies showed that young adult children who reported that their parents were more nurturing reported higher implicit self-esteem compared with those whose parents were less nurturing. Studies 2 and 3 added a measure of overprotectiveness and revealed that children who reported that their parents were overprotective also reported lower implicit self-esteem. Moreover, Study 3 revealed that mothers’ independent reports of their early interactions with their children were also related to children’s level of implicit self-esteem. In all three studies, these findings remained reliable when we controlled statistically for participants’ explicit self-esteem. These findings contribute to a growing body of literature validating the construct of implicit self-esteem.     

LINKAGES BETWEEN WOMEN'S PROVIDER-ROLE ATTITUDES, PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING, AND FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

The primary aim of this investigation was to examine the extent to which the meanings women attach to their provider-role responsibilities are differentially related to their psychological well-being and family relationships and to the division of labor in the home. The sample included 43 dualearner and 50 single-earner families. In home interviews, wives reported on role overload, depression, satisfaction with the marriage, and attitudes regarding women's and men's roles. Their children completed two measures assessing daily hassles and their relationship with their mother. Reports of daily involvement in household work were obtained from wives and husbands during four telephone interviews. Discriminant function analyses indicated that aspects of women's psychological well-being and marital and parent-child relationships and of the division of labor discriminated women in four different provider groups: maidsecondary providers, ambivalent coproviders, coproviders, and homemakers. Wives who were ambivalent about their provider responsibilities tended to report higher levels of depression and overload and significantly lower marital satisfaction. Wives who saw their employment as secondary to that of their husbands reported relatively higher levels of depression and overload but also the highest levels of marital satisfaction.     

Marital conflict and acculturation among Mexican American husbands and wives

This study examined the relationship between acculturation and multiple dimensions of marital conflict among Mexican American husbands and wives. Participants were 151 husbands and wives who were recruited from a health maintenance organization in northern California and individually interviewed. More acculturated husbands and wives engaged in less avoidance of conflict and were more expressive of their feelings in an argument. Husbands who were more acculturated reported more conflict concerning sex and consideration for the other. Bicultural and more acculturated husbands reported that their wives were more verbally and physically aggressive, compared with mono-Mexican husbands. The findings provide evidence that more acculturated husbands and wives are involved in more direct expressions of conflict in their marriages, compared with less acculturated husbands and wives.